Here Is The List Of Top Five Bankrupt Athletes

Sports may be one of the highest paying professions and star athletes can be worth millions even billions of dollars. Athletes like Michael Jordan, who has a net worth of $1.9 billion, have proved that athletes’ net worth can cross the billion dollar mark.

Similarly, athletes can earn absurd amounts of money from their teams, in fact, star footballer Lionel Messi earns around £7.3m every month making him the highest paid footballer as of June 2019. To add to their jaw-dropping salary from their clubs there are bonuses, endorsements, social media marketing fees and sponsorships that pay them millions of dollars.

However, life has its ups and downs and even the richest celebrities may go bankrupt at some point in their life no matter how much wealth they possess.

Some of us may wonder how players lose the millions and billions of dollars that the athletes earn throughout their career.

More money means that there are more close ones hopeful of a handout. Similarly, there are more properties to maintain, more tax to pay, and more cars to service. Likewise, celebrities sometimes lose track of their spending and go bankrupt.

We have listed the following athletes who went bankrupt at some point in their lives

Sports Superstars Who Went Bankrupt

Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson aka The Baddest Man On The Planet, is an integral name in boxing. He was once one of the richest athletes in the world earning around $30 million per fight when at his prime. He was worth over $300 million in the past. He went from the streets to the ring and became a legend but went bankrupt. In other words, he went from rags to riches and to rags again.

A photo of Tyson showing off heaps of cash before he was bankrupt

The extravagant spender once had tigers in his Las Vegas mansion but filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003 and accumulated $23 million in debt to IRS, divorce lawyers, and an ex-wife. He also sued his boxing promoter Don King who was like a father figure to Tyson for stealing huge chunks of his wealth.

Evander Holyfield

Evander Holyfield is another boxer closely linked to Mike Tyson, the duo was made famous after Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear during a match in 1997. The star earned more than $560 million from his tenure as a boxer.

Holyfield was once one of the richest athletes on the planet

In a similar fashion, the star got paid $34 million for the infamous match with Mike Tyson. He blew away all of his money and was even evicted from his 54,000-square-foot home after failing to pay the bills.

He has 11 children with 9 different women and child support payments as well as other various bills have caused the former boxer to go bankrupt.

Lenny Dykstra

Called Nails for his gritty and tenacious nature on the field, Lenny Dykstra earned over $36 million from his baseball career and even earned a lot of money after his retirement. He seemed like he was going to make even more money after investing heavily in the stock market and real estate.

The once filthy rich baseballer later went bankrupt and was convicted for fraud

He fell swiftly from grace and ended up being convicted for fraud. He had tried to sell or destroy property which belonged to his creditors. To add to this, he was also called on trial for indecent exposure and drug possession. He went to prison for 6 months that he served on top of a conviction for grand theft auto.

Gaylord Perry

Considered by many as one of the best baseball players in the world, Gaylord Perry is known for his 314 wins and 3,534 strikeouts. The MLB Hall of Famer became famous for using the spitball technique to pitch which is illegal as per the rules of baseball.

Perry is a revered baseballer who filed for divorce in 1986

The star was once rich enough to buy 400 acres (161 hectares) of land located in rural North Carolina. The financial state of his family forced him to go declare bankruptcy and he had to hand over the property to the bank in 1986.

Sheryl Swoopes

One of the premier players in the WNBA, many people could see that she would become an instant hit on the court. At her prime, she earned around $90,000 a season and was endorsed by giants like Nike but due to poor management of money from her side, she ended up going bankrupt in 2004.

Former WNBA star Swoops went bankrupt in 2004

The WNBA star herself admits that she interacted with the wrong people and in 2004 her financial documents showed that she was in a lot of debt. She owed more than $700,000 to creditors out of which $275,000 was owed to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).